Des Moines, Iowa — The Des Moines City Council is trying to fast-track over the weekend a heartless ordinance that will penalize people for sleeping in public places and fine them $120. It also reduces the amount of time people sleeping outside have to remove their possessions and gives the city greater leeway to throw out their possessions. Here's the Des Moines Register article, which links to the ordinance.
The ordinance was introduced shortly before the weekend, and the council at 7:30 Monday morning will act on getting rid of the usual second and third reading of the ordinance, cutting short the ability of the public and advocacy groups to try to dissuade the council from approving it.
The following statement can be attributed to Mark Stringer, ACLU of Iowa executive director.
"Although the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that preventing people experiencing homelessness from sleeping in public does not violate the 8th Amendment's protections against cruel and unusual punishment, that doesn't mean it's open season on taking action to harass people with no other options. Ordinances like the one Des Moines is considering may still violate other constitutional rights and be challengeable on other legal grounds.
"Just because someone doesn't have housing doesn't mean that they don't have constitutional rights. These include constitutional protections of due process, free speech, and others. It's particularly heartless that the city is also considering fining people who are homeless $120.
"Instead of taking these actions that only further harm people with no place to go and few options, Des Moines should be investing in real solutions to the problem of homelessness—not just endlessly punishing and moving people who are homeless out of sight. These include better shelter capacity and options. Currently, the Des Moines area needs about three times its current shelter capacity.
"When you have no other place to stay—you can’t stay at a shelter, no one you might know locally will take you in, or you don’t even have a car to sleep in—what is a person supposed to do? We all need to sleep. Many people who are homeless don’t have any other option."
The ACLU of Iowa also has sent a legal letter to the Des Moines City Council, detailing why the ordinance violates the constitutional rights of people who are homeless and urges them to slow down the fast-tracking process for approval.
